


stuck in the middle with you

by tvheit



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Also they're all different species and shit, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Everyone except Eddie and Christopher is magic, Humor, Kinda just snippets of their lives, M/M, Slice of Life, because I like mashing together stuff, this is the 911 weird spirit/monster/supernatural magical realism au i wanted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-06 06:38:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21222215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tvheit/pseuds/tvheit
Summary: Here's a joke: A secretive faery, jokester wizard/his alchemist partner-in-crime, hothead with his heart on fire (literally), and a human walk into a fire station.The punchline? They're a family.





	stuck in the middle with you

“Who hired you,” Hen says, as she watches Buck get smothered by sentient fire blankets, “Why did they do that?" 

“Shut up,” Buck says, but it comes out muffled as one of the blankets covers his face and starts to strangle him. “This was an accident and you know it.”

Hen looks at Chim, who’s currently puppeteering the blankets with his wand. He looks positively gleeful.

“Look, I’m just saying. The point of being a firefighter is to put out fires, not start them.”

Buck manages to wrangle the blanket out of his face long enough to glare at Hen, before another one tangles around his legs and he gets lifted up into the air with a yelp. A burst of flame erupts from somewhere in the mess. Bobby finally appears, toting his special extinguisher, and Hen sighs in relief.

“Chim, let him down,” Bobby calls, and Buck drops to the floor with a thud as the blankets fly away and fold themselves in a neat pile next to Chimney. Buck groans into the pavement, his left arm and back still burning merrily away. Bobby doesn’t hesitate, just aims and sprays the silver mist over Buck. Smoke fills the air, rancidly sweet. When it clears, Buck’s still lying there, looking like a drenched kitten.

“Thanks, Bobby,” he mutters, pushing himself off the ground and awkwardly standing up.

“Honestly, Cap,” Hen says, “Of all the new recruits, there just had to be one with his heart made of fire.”

“I’ve been working here two months,” Buck grumbles. He shakes his head like a dog as he peels off what’s left of his shirt, charred and smoking. A steady glow emits from his chest, pulsing. “This is the first time this has happened.”

“Hey, I got a question for you, fire boy,” Chim says, “How come you never set others on fire when you. You know.”

“Ha ha. This like. Rarely happens, okay? It’s happened – what, less than ten times my whole life. I just thought we were in danger.”

“You thought we were in danger because Cap dropped a frying pan and your immediate reaction was to set yourself on fire?” Hen asks. 

“Well – I mean – Look, shut up,” Buck says, looking like grumpy cat. “And anyway, you’re the alchemist. Why can’t you make me fireproof shit?”

“Because it’s resources we don’t have, dumbass,” Hen tells him, not for the first time, “So far, the easiest way to put it out is faery mist, and I’m not about to even attempt drawing up the circle that would combine something as complex as that with your clothing.”

“I resent that,” Buck tells her as he gets whacked in the face with a shirt, courtesy of Chimney. “Hey!”

Bobby hefts the extinguisher onto his shoulder. Buck chances a glance at him. He doesn’t look mad, just faintly amused.

“Heat checks from now on,” he announces, and Buck groans. Across the room, he can see the _32 _on the ___ Days Since Our Last Accident_ board getting erased. 

* * *

Bobby’s a faery, which is why they put Buck in his squad. He’s kind of the only reason Buck’s allowed to _be _a firefighter. They’re the only species that has proven techniques in dealing with elemental magic, and they don’t like to share them. Modern science, alchemy, and magic, no matter how advanced, still can’t compare. Faeries also don’t stray from their own, but Bobby’s an exception.

“It’s kind of a penance,” Hen tells Buck, “Something bad happened to his troupe. He won’t say what, but now he’s a lone Fae. I wouldn’t ask about the spell book, if I were you.”

Buck asks anyway, and gets thrown into the ceiling. Wind was always Bobby’s specialty.

* * *

Eddie is human.

That’s not as uncommon as most people think it is, but Buck’s never really had any close proximity with humans before. They tended to keep to their own little communities. 

“So, no powers?” He asks curiously as they soap down the engine. Eddie shakes his head politely. 

“None,” he replies, as if it’s a question he’s had to answer many times.

“Mutations? Visions? Like, is any of your family not human?" 

Eddie stops, and sighs.

“All human. No monster, faery, undead, or spiritual relations whatsoever. Can we get back to work?”

Buck backs off. His heart burns.

* * *

Athena is not a faery. Bobby is. Frankly, everyone’s surprised they start a relationship. 

“Guys, leave Cap alone,” Chimney interrupts them after they circle back to the argument about whether faeries were actually able to feel love for a species other than their own for the umpteenth time. “All the research papers mean shit all, because none of them concern lone Faes. Which, can I remind you, normally die several months after being separated from the troupe. Bobby’s been going strong for years.”

That shuts them all up. And anyway, if it didn’t, Athena’s a strong werewolf with an even stronger pack family backing her up. None of them want to deal with that.

* * *

“My heart is made out of fire,” Buck tells Eddie, who hums without looking at him.

“Is that so.”

“Yeah,” Buck continues, “It’s some sort of genetic thing. All the guys in my family got it from a curse, ages ago.”

“Hm,” Eddie finally looks at him. “A curse?”

Buck grins.

“Yep. Don’t know the specifics, but basically a human priest bested a fire mage, who then cursed his lineage to burn for eternity. Every single child was gonna be born in flames, but the mage and the priest reached an understanding later on. You can’t undo magic, though. So he altered the spell to just be our hearts.”

“Wow,” Eddie says, and looks at Buck’s chest, as if the glow was visible through the fabric. “That’s… unusual.”

“Isn’t it?” Buck says, still smiling, “Sucks sometimes, though. I’ll just catch on fire. It doesn’t burn me, but it’s still dangerous. Real fire will, though. Burn me, I mean.”

“Real fires are easier to put out,” Hen cuts into their conversation. “They actually react to water. They aren’t caused by emotional outbursts.”

“If I reacted to water, Hen, I’d be dead by now,” Buck says. Eddie snorts a little laugh, and it’s a cutest thing Buck’s ever heard.

“What a travesty,” she replies, and laughs when Buck shoves her shoulder. 

* * *

Chimney is a great paramedic and an even greater wizard. It just sucks that most of the time, he uses his magic to screw with the team.

“I’m going to add ‘No Animal Summoning’ to the List,” Hen announces, after having been chased around by a horde of squirrels all morning. The List is the unofficial 118 rule book, implemented by a previous captain to mitigate the amount of cross-species tension in the firehouse. Chimney just giggles, but she points threateningly to the List, which is getting very long, and he shuts up.

“What’s your case?” Bobby says, because he controls the List now, and has actually gone a step further and grown a faerie ring around the entire station to make sure the rules are being followed.

“My case is Chimney, making a bunch of rabid squirrels chase me all morning,” Hen replies.

“Chimney, was that you?”  
  
“Hey, I plead the fifth,” Chim says, “Maybe it was Buck.”

“Wh- How the hell could it have been me?” Buck whines.

“You do eat a lot of nuts,” Eddie says, pointing to where Buck’s currently demolishing a bag of cashews.

“Shut up,” Buck says, cradling his snack protectively, “Chim, stop trying to tug it out of my hand!”

“Okay, children,” Bobby grins, and he goes over to the list, uncapping a silver marker, and writing _No Animal Summoning_. “Chimney, wand detention." 

“What?” Chimney says, holding his wand tight. “You can’t do this, come on, Cap –”

“You get it back as soon as we get a call,” Bobby says, firm as always, “Remember when Hen set up a portal in your locker and we took away her summoning circle?"

“But –” Chimney’s cut off by an ominous thundering, and Bobby, wordlessly, points to the List, rule number three.

_Accept the punishment for breaking a rule._

Chimney hands over the wand immediately. The last person to disobey the List was Sal, who got a nasty shock. Literally.

* * *

Eddie’s got a kid, and he’s the cutest kid Buck has ever seen in his life.

“I’m in love with him,” Buck announces, as they watch Christopher sleep on the couch in the fire station, “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to be a father more in my life.”

“You’re welcome to have him,” Eddie chuckles jokingly, but the look on his face as he stares at Christopher is unmistakably loving.

“Bobby wants to cook him dinner,” Buck says, looking over at Eddie. “Don’t take my word for it, but I think he’s gonna cook faerie food. He’s _never _cooked faerie food for us before. Christopher is something special.”

Eddie’s face scrunches up, and for an alarming second Buck thinks he’s said something wrong, but then Eddie whispers, “I don’t deserve you guys,” and Buck’s hugging him before he can realise what’s going on.

“You do,” he says fiercely, “You do, okay, shh, it’s fine.”

Eddie just heaves into his shoulder.

“All the magic in the world,” Eddie says, “All the possibilities and the power and the potential, and they still can’t fix Christopher.”

Buck stares at him, and Eddie looks at him, panic in his eyes.

“No,” he says hurriedly, “Buck, you know I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. I love him, I love Christopher so much. He doesn’t need to be fixed. Oh, God, he doesn’t need to be fixed, he’s perfect. Why the hell did I say that?”

“Hey,” Buck says, hand up in a placating gesture. “It’s okay. You’re just under a lot of stress right now, what with your grandmother in hospital.”

“I know,” Eddie says, and sighs. “Still doesn’t give me the right to complain about my own goddamn son.”

“Yeah,” Buck says, because he doesn’t know what else to say, “It doesn’t.”

* * *

Bobby set fire to the ring his troupe had set up around a block of apartments because he got high off moonshine and left his space heater running, causing an electric fire. Unfortunately, faeries can’t control fire when it’s not magical.

They all miss him. Chimney isn’t Bobby, no matter how hard he tries to be, and Hen locks herself away, drawing summoning circle after circle, losing herself in her studies.

Buck spends more time with Eddie off shift. It’s as much as they can do.

* * *

“Hey, Buck,” He hears faintly as he squints awake. Everything hurts but dully, like he’s been hit by a truck.

Oh, wait.

He manages to turn towards the voice, and Christopher is sitting there, grinning at him. He can’t help it, he grins back through the pain.

“Hey buddy,” he says, “How are you going?”

“Good,” Christopher replies, still grinning, “I told Dad I would make you wake up.”

“Wow, you’re super, aren’t you?” Buck rasps, and Christopher giggles, kicking his legs back and forth.

His legs.

Buck looks down, and he groans with relief, because there are both his legs, one covered in bandages, but both his legs nonetheless.

“The doctor was a previous necromancer. I heard he worked wonders,” he hears from the doorway, and sees Eddie standing there, leaning against the doorframe, grinning.

“Shit, did I die?” Buck asks.

“No,” Eddie laughs, “No Zombie Buck, I’m afraid. Sorry,” He adds to Christopher’s disappointed _aww_. Buck grins.

“You know, when you told me about your family curse?” Eddie says.

“Yeah. What about it?”  
  
“Your heart being fire. You being fire,” Eddie says, “You lost a lot of blood, Buck. Went unconscious, no pulse, no breathing. Modern medicine would’ve pronounced you dead at the hospital.”

“But they didn’t,” Buck says. 

“But they didn’t,” Eddie agrees. “Because your heart burned brighter than ever, every time they thought you were slipping. And they kept working, and working, because your curse gave them hope that you were alive.”

He’s standing by Buck’s bedside now, and Christopher wriggles out of his chair next to him. Eddie puts an arm around him, pulling him close.

“You gave us all hope,” He says, looking dangerously close to crying, “If it were me, or Christopher, they’d have called it, because humans don’t have any signs. And all I could think of when they wheeled you in was how glad I was that you had a curse.”

“I’m pretty glad about it, too,” Buck says, “Means I get to spend more time annoying you.”

After that, Eddie laughing and leaning over kiss him just seemed like a natural follow up, really.

**Author's Note:**

> happy halloween! i love this au it's my baby i'm sorry i didn't write as much i have a whole ass world i've built but i don't have the time to write for it.


End file.
